Gaming with TheGizmologist

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

or A Quirky Hack-n-Slash With Trippy Visuals Based On A Book Banned from The Bible

I'd heard about El Shaddai around the time of its release. I was moderately interested based on what I was hearing about it's visual style and unusual interpretation of a Biblical story. After its release in 2011, I heard very little about it and it dropped from my mind. Recently I saw a TV show about books banned from the Bible and there was the Book of Enoch, the inspiration for El Shaddai. It re-ignited my interest so I got my hands on it.

THE BASICS: You play as Enoch, apparently a scribe from Heaven who has been sent to Earth to stop a group of fallen angels from destroying mankind. You are aided by Lucifel, a jean-wearing Yuppie that talks to God via cell phone...I'd like to know which provider gives him that kind of reception because AT&T has been disappointing me for years.

From what I could gather from the poorly communicated story, the fallen angels fell in love with human women and began mating with them. Their unnatural offspring are called Nephilim and apparently eat everything in the world, including each other. This causing a fire storm that will destroy the Earth. At least that's what I gathered.

THE GAMEPLAY: The game is a basic hack-n-slash with three weapons that work in a rock-scissors-paper fashion against certain enemies. You weaken them, steal their weapon, then attack them some more. This continues throughout the game.

It is essentially a platformer with some sections where it feels like an old-school side-scroller. The fighting is fairly simplistic and there are some puzzles late in the game that do a little to change up the monotony.

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PROS and CONS

PROS:

1) The visuals are fresh and exciting. Each level has a distinct style, some are better than others, but sometimes the visual effects get in the way of the gameplay.

2) The simplistic fighting is easy to grasp and does offer a few twists and challenges.

3) A unique story and setting rarely visited/told.

CONS:

1) As good as the visuals can be, they do interfere with the platforming areas at times. This leads to some cheap deaths where you cannot see your shadow, next objective, or have no depth perception. Can be frustrating instead of challenging.

2) While the visuals are unique and interesting, some levels are definitely more inspired than others.

3) The story is poorly told and very odd. Sometimes I didn't understand what I was doing or why. There are some better story moments toward the end, but by then I just wasn't as involved or interested as I should have been.

4) Hack-n-Slash can become boring. You can see where they are going to be before you get there so there is little surprise, and you can't move on until you defeat them in most cases.
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ACHIEVEMENTS:

I managed to get a good deal of achievements on my first playthrough, but it appears most if not all of them are hidden achievements. Once I played through it once, I was not interested to go through it all again, nor researching what the hidden achievements were.
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MY OPINION:

I went in expecting a visual experience and hoping for an above average game.

The visual experience was a minor disappointment, though I'm glad I experienced it. The gameplay, however, was very disappointing. The story was muddled, the gameplay was uninspired, and the overall experience was colorful but shallow.

El Shaddai: Ascension of The Metatron is definitely an experience worth having, but couldn't live up to the hype its presentation suggested.

RATING: $19.99

NOTE: The rating system is based on the price I would pay for this experience, not on market value at the time the blog was created. Ratings go from $0.00 (I would never pay a cent for this game!) to $59.99 (full retail price for most games). Some ratings may be higher or lower in some rare instances, such as ones regarding DLC or other circumstances.

The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct

or The Short, Linear Story of One Man, His Brother, and his Crossbow

I chose this as my first review on Gaming with TheGizmologist for several reasons; 1) it is the most recently released game I've played, 2) it is the game I've played most recently, 3) I'm a huge Walking Dead fan and had been interested in this game for a while now, and lastly 4) After reading reviews online from critics and gamers alike there seems to be a lot of parity with many people giving it one star out of five and others giving it rave reviews.

The truth sits somewhere in the middle.

The game may have been intended as just a money grab by AMC and Activision, and the release date was pushed up to coincide with certain events in the television show, but there are some good things in this game. It's unfortunate they weren't able to flesh it out into a fuller, more rewarding, experience.

THE BASICS: You play as everyone's favorite redneck, Daryl Dixon; the crossbow-wielding, country boy with the cold exterior and a heart of gold (admirably played by Norman Reedus on the AMC series). The guys want to be like him and the ladies want to be with him. The ladies will have to wait, but this is the guys' chance.

Daryl's hunting trip with his father, Uncle Jess Collins, and others is brutally interrupted by 'walkers,' or the undead. The game begins with Daryl and Uncle Jess travelling from their mountain hunting lodge to the city, ultimately searching for answers, then an evacuation. Along the way, Daryl must scavenge for fuel, weapons, and car parts to keep his vehicle running, meets other survivors whom he can take with him or leave behind, and find his overbearing, drug-using, marginally psychotic brother, Merle.

THE GAMEPLAY: There are essentially three acts and a climax, culminating in approximately 6 hours of gameplay. I've heard some players stating they've beat the game in 3 hours. I find that hard to believe, even with the best of luck and skill. Each act is broken down into sections of gameplay.

1) The map - There are 1 or 2 possible destinations to choose from. For instance, a logging camp or a hospital. Each has a downside and an upside. Maybe there is more weapons/supplies, but there will also be more walkers to avoid/kill. Once a destination is picked, you can choose backroads, streets, or highways. Again, each choice has benefits or risks. Backroads give you more opportunities to find survivors, scavenge, and complete optional goals, but it burns a lot more fuel. Highways are the opposite. Less chances to scavenge, more chances for your car to breakdown or overheat, but you travel quicker and burn less gas. Streets are in between, with average chance of everything. This adds a little strategy to the game and most events during this time are completely random and even the driving is out of your control.

2) Random events - Once in a while, your car breaks down or fuel runs out and you have to find coolant, a part, or more gas. Sometimes cars are blocking your way and need to be pushed aside without alerting a nearby herd of walkers. Other times you stumble across survivors or areas that can be scavenged. All of these events are played essentially the same and on the same 8 or so maps. Though the maps are often similar (or identical!) each time supplies are randomly placed so the experience will not be completely the same. Once enough supplies, gas, or other necessary items are found, you can leave the area, go back to the map screen, and continue your journey.

3) Story events - There are several locations that are story events. These are the destinations you choose from the map screen. You cannot see them all in one play through since you cannot back track and only have one save slot(!). To see all the locations you have to play through the game at least twice. Each story event starts with you telling any survivors with you to either stay at the car or scavenge for supplies. You pick the type of supply they are looking for (food for health, ammo, fuel) and what weapon they take with them. The group has a risk factor based on the number of members, strengths and weaknesses, and what weapon they take with them. Once they have their orders, they are gone until the level is over. They do not come with you or support you in any way. Nor do most of them have any personality so you won't really care if they don't come back.

After that you pick from your scavenged supplies which weapons, ammo, aid to take with you. Choose wisely because you can't come back to the car until the level is over. Then you grab your knife and the level begins. (NOTE: You don't find the crossbow until late in the game. Boo!)

The basic of gameplay are the same as random events except you must complete a storyline mission before leaving. The basic strategy consists of sneaking, executing walkers silently with your knife (which sounds amazingly like sticking a knife in a coconut or pineapple), and using firearms as a last resort, since it attracts more walkers. You can throw bottles and flares to distract groups of walkers, but that is pretty much it. If you don't like like the basics of the gameplay, you won't like the game. Sorry. I find it simple, but appealing.

You continue this map, route, random event, story event pattern until the final climax.

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PROS and CONS

PROS:

1) The game shines in the random events that keep things a little fresh

2) The melee and gunplay controls work well and executions feel satisfying

3) The Walking Dead name and characters voiced by the actual actors (Daryl and Merle)

4) The atmosphere and stealth style is effectively implemented. Walkers in groups can be legitimately scary!

5) Inventory management, group management, limited travel options, and occasional optional objectives keep the game from being too linear

6) Low price. At release it was $49.99 and as of the writing of this blog can be picked up new for $29.99 through certain retailers.

CONS:

1) The game is way too short. Clocking in at an average of 6 hours, it warrants multiple playthroughs for several achievements and discovering all locations/survivors. Unfortunately, many gamers won't want to sit through it multiple times

2) Graphics are not up to par. Personally, the visual style is fine to me, but compared to other games that have come out in the past 3 years, it is easy to see the textures are dated. Some gamers have bashed this game for horrible graphics. They are not horrible, but they are not great.

3) Game seems incomplete at times. Whether due to rushed scheduling, limited resources, or just poor design, some areas suffer. This is especially evident in the group management. The optional survivors really have no personality, never interact, and rarely help much. So when they die, it's not big deal. A big part of The Walking Dead comics and TV show on which this game is based is the drama between survivors. Other than interactions between Mere and Daryl, this is the biggest glaring mistake. This improvement alone could have made the game special.

4) No Multiplayer - Yes, the single player experience is the focus, and rightfully so. But there's no excuse for not having two player co-op in a game where Daryl and Merle are the focus. Even if it were a separate (even shorter) campaign or series of gameplay options, this game could have benefited from co-op, if not from a full-blown multiplayer component.

5) Linear Story - There are a few travel options and random encounters which make the game interesting, but the story lacks a lot of emotion and is mostly linear. While it shines in the random encounters and the limited strategy options, it suffers in the linear story events. And other than dialogue from Merle and Daryl, the other characters are mostly forgettable. It's a real shame.

6) One Save Slot - you can only have one save slot, which autosaves. The autosave isn't a problem as it generally saves at decent times. But having one slot means you can't have two or more campaigns on one XBOX. This really only becomes a problem when achievement hunting, but having at least 3 save slots would have been appreciated and just shows a lack of polish in my opinion.
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ACHIEVEMENTS:

Without going through all the possible achivements (other sites do that just fine), I will say all of them are very possible and most are easy to obtain, even the hidden achievements. It DOES require multiple playthroughs. There are sites online which will give the locations of all 8 posters, stuffed squirrels (yes, stuffed squirrels) and most likely place for each survivor; random or story-related.

The one painfully difficult achievement is the 'Every Man, Woman, and Child,' where you must choose to travel with each optional survivor. The problem is that optional survivors are completely random, but do only occur in certain places. Therefore, it is possible to get this achivement in one playthrough, though extremely unlikely. Realistically, it could take 6 - 16 playthroughs to get this achievement. And given that there is only one save slot, you have to play the entire game again from the start, or "dashboard it" before it completes it's autosave. Quite a pain.

Other than achievements, there are "relics" which can be unlocked by saving certain survivors or doing other objectives. These relics unlock abilities on future playthroughs. Examples include, survivors are more successful at scavenging, unlimited ammo, better stealth, etc. But my favorite is easily the relic which gives you the ability to start with your crossbow and assault rifle.
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MY OPINION:

I went in with low expecations and high hopes, given the fact that it started at $49.99 instead of the usual $59.99, and there were no critic reviews prior to release. Given the history of games based on other properties like TV shows and movies, this was an omen that did not bode well. Still, it had Daryl and his crossbow and The Walking Dead name, so I wanted to like it so much.

And I did like it. So much in fact, I went back for all the achievements, clocking in 7 playthroughs since its release. It's shortcomings are obvious, and will not keep the average FPS gamer interested. You can't compare it to Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty, or other FPS games. I almost don't want to call this a FPS. It is a first-person experience, but to call it a shooter is misleading. Unfortunately, there isn't enough strategy and gameplay options to flesh out the experience.

Ultimately, like a walker in the shadows, if you don't expect it to, this game might surprise you and get its teeth into you.

RATING: $34.99

NOTE: The rating system is based on the price I would pay for this experience, not on market value at the time the blog was created. Ratings go from $0.00 (I would never pay a cent for this game!) to $59.99 (full retail price for most games). Some ratings may be higher or lower in some rare instances, such as ones regarding DLC or other circumstances.

Gaming with TheGizmologist

Monday, May 6, 2013

Review #2: El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

Friday, April 5, 2013

Review #1: The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (XBOX 360)

Blog #1: Who is TheGizmologist (and why should I care)?